My Albanian-born father-in-law was an American patriot. In the mid-20th century, he served for decades as a CIA operative, quietly fighting against the spread of communism in Europe and Southeast Asia.

Before his death at age 92, he lamented America’s future, saying, “I’m glad I won’t be around to see the end.” Long before the U.S. was on the brink of World War III, I shared his bittersweet pessimism, prompted by the “death spiral math” found on the U.S. Debt Clock.

The “clock” ticks real-time government data showing the ever-growing national debt — $36.9 trillion as of this writing — the most owed by any country or empire in human history.

Nonetheless, this decades-long travesty of overspending, attributed to presidents from both parties, is still manageable if the U.S. gross domestic product — estimated at $29.2 trillion in 2024 — were to exceed the nearly $37 trillion national debt. At least, that is the economic theory recently espoused by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who stated, “If the economy grows faster than the debt, we stabilize the country.”

Bessent’s philosophy of “we can grow our way out of debt” supports adding an estimated $3.3 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office, if President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” were to become law.

Cue the laugh track, because Bessent’s growth fantasy is a joke when viewed through the lens of history and facts. The........

© The Hill